Silverpine celebrates 40 years on court
Silverpine Netball was this week counting the years, all 40 of them, since volunteer parents got the club moving to answer a big sporting need for young local girls.
Silverpine volunteers, mostly current but also from the past, this week celebrated their anniversary with a special function at Trentham Racecourse.
This season Silverpine fielded 13 teams.
The year 3 and 4 sides were at the club’s long time home at Silverstream School home while the year 5 and 6 sides play in Upper Hutt Junior netball at Heretaunga College.
In its heyday Silverpine ran competitions from years 3 to 8 with 40 teams from the Hutt Valley taking part in the Saturday afternoon play.
One of the original junior clubs in the region, Silverpine’s proud history includes it being the first club to allow boys to play, a policy which continues today.
The club’s 1976 beginning followed a Pinehaven mother, Doreen Anderson, asking if any Silverstream school girls were interested in a game against a Pinehaven school side.
Adrianne Chandler, then a school mother, remembers the girls being excited about a game outside their limited inter-school play.
‘‘Pinehaven had eight girls and we arrived there with about 40,’’ she said. ’’That’s when we decided we had to do something.’’
The Silverstream and Pinehaven parents got together and the Silverpine Junior Netball Club was born, providing the weekend competition for Upper Hutt.
One of the first tasks was providing uniforms so out came the sewing machines and the skirts and bibs were made, the original tartan design still worn today by the younger players.
It was the start of an unrivalled and unbroken Silverpine service.
The number of teams involved grew quickly. Games were played at several schools and a few years later Upper Hutt junior netball started up to meet the demand with the two competitions organised on geographical lines, Chandler said.
By then Chandler had become the first Silverpine secretary and four decades on she is the president and a life member;
Her husband Barry was another at that foundation meeting. The couple are Saturday legends with Adrianne on the timing hooter and Barry keeping the scores each and every week.